Behind the lace curtains of a modest Sacramento boarding house, Dorothea Puente cultivated the image of a kind grandmotherly caretaker. But in reality, she was orchestrating one of California’s most chilling murder-for-profit schemes. Throughout the 1980s, Puente preyed on the vulnerable, elderly and disabled tenants who trusted her with their lives, while secretly cashing their benefit checks and burying their bodies in her backyard. In this episode, we unravel the haunting timeline of her crimes, explore how she evaded suspicion for so long, and examine her astrological chart. With both her Sun and Moon in Capricorn, Puente embodied cold pragmatism and ruthless ambition, while her Gemini Mars added a calculating, manipulative edge, making her a master at deception, control, and survival.

SHOW NOTES:

Connect with us across streaming platforms and social media, and explore ways to support our work through our Linktree.

Cosmic Crimes Podcast Linktree

If you are new to astrology and/or are getting lost or confused during the episodes, we created a free guide of all-things-astrology on Substack for you to reference so you can listen along with ease. Click the link below!

Astrology Basics

SOURCES:

“Dorothea Puente.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, last edited 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Puente. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.

“Dorothea Puente home and more historic stories.” The Sacramento Bee, 27 Oct. 2024.

“The People v. Dorothea Montalvo Puente criminal case records.” California Digital Library, Online Archive of California, Center for Sacramento History, oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8b85fn5. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.

Padock, Richard C., and Carla Norton. “Landlady Guilty in Murders of Three Tenants.” Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 1993.

“Landlady Guilty in 3 Murders.” The Washington Post, 26 Aug. 1993, d45e4906-5c7e-486a-9737-a2832d953d9d.

“Oxygen: Who Were Serial Killer Dorothea Puente’s Victims?” Oxygen.com, Gina Tron, 9 Apr. 2021.

“Dorothea Puente: How California Serial Killer Was Caught.” Oxygen.com, Becca van Sambeck, 15 Apr. 2021.